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FE Pre-Beta: Today’s Screenshots

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FE Pre-Beta: Today’s Screenshots

from JoeUser Forums

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They’ve implemented new controls that let players alter the look of the game. I had been kind of loud about complaining about the “blah” of the palette so now there’s various sliders.  It’ll be interesting to see what beta testers choose as their preferred palettes.

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UI update to the character stats.

 

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In FE, we pre-allocate memory so we can keep an eye on memory use.   But also, and part of this is to support modders so that they can go crazy post-release, the game is 64-bit aware. Since I’m running a 64-bit OS (Windows 7 64-bit) I get 4 gigabytes to play in instead of 2 gigabytes.  Our internal requirement is to stay under 2 gigabytes still even when it means the unit texture sizes take a hit (that’s why our units don’t look as nice since unlike a FPS where there might be up to 64 “units”, in FE, there might be thousands of units).

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Reply #26 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Gandhialf, reply 23
One more thing: initiative. As far as I know more initiative means more frequent moves in tactical combat. What is real life (i.e. real time) equivalent of initiative? Speed (unit with high initiative can go further in the same time then units with low initiative) and reflex+awareness (unit with high initiative can attack more targets in the same time) I guess. So initiative stat should relate to dexterity attribute and moves stat somehow, shouldn't it? Does it? (Or I just don't get the idea of initiative?)

 

Initiative is how often a unit gets to act

Movement is how far they can move

Reply #27 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Campaigner, reply 26
Initiative is how often a unit gets to act

Movement is how far they can move

You mean "how far they can move in one turn"?

OK, I think I get it. So there is no dependence between move value and initiative value, isn't it?

Is initiative a basic value, i.e. not dependent on any other attribute or stat?

SoundPackager - Customize the Windows sound scheme
Reply #28 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting mqpiffle, reply 25
Seeing how tool tips have been implemented thus far, one would imagine that if one were to mouse over a combat stat, one would see exactly how that value is calculated.

It doesn't matter. There is no reason to place stats in chaotic order, and make other unreasonable things.

Reply #29 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting StevenAus, reply 24

Quoting Omnax1, reply 20
Quoting StevenAus, reply 14Yes, Age of Wonders had wonderful unit descriptions.  AoW2 didn't have them and the game felt more like a "game" and less of a "world" because of that.

Aow, AOW 2 and shadow magic had descriptions as I remember.

Oh, well there was something in AoW that wasn't in AoW2.  If it wasn't unit descriptions, then I don't know what it was.

You are right, AoW2 didn't have unit descriptions. The community complained and they made a return in Shadow magic.

Reply #30 from Elemental Forums Top


that first pic is just sweet, has me head brainstormin.  so... are the units defending in tha city or are they next to the city & the surrounding tiles were included in the battle? <------ latter means we can pull in adjacent armies into the conflict/battle?

 

I too would not read the lore if it was hidden & I"m much more into the lore of this game than I ever was aow:sm (possibly my alltime 4x fav)

 

 

 

 

Reply #31 from Elemental Forums Top

Is Fallen Enchantress going to have those nice C64/DOS beta intros that War of Magic had... the ones that didn't cause cancer?

Reply #33 from Elemental Forums Top

One small suggestion on the character display screen. Some sort of logical grouping for the traits would be very helpful. Right now it looks like there displayed to the side of the picture in a somewhat random order (I'm guessing its either the order they were acquired in or alphabetical). It would be great if they were organized in a more structured way.

For instance, since magical skills are probably most important always display them at the top in the order air, earth, fire, water, life, death so that in a quick look at any character portrait you can immediately see what magic skills they have. Next would be traits that affect tactical combat, and finally would be strategic traits.

Right now I just see a random list of magic skills, butterflies, and foxes. I'm sure it will make more sense once I know what they all mean, but I shouldn't have to hunt through what could be a long list of traits to find what magic skills the guy has.

Reply #35 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting jpmcconnell, reply 33
One small suggestion on the character display screen. Some sort of logical grouping for the traits would be very helpful. Right now it looks like there displayed to the side of the picture in a somewhat random order (I'm guessing its either the order they were acquired in or alphabetical). It would be great if they were organized in a more structured way.

For instance, since magical skills are probably most important always display them at the top in the order air, earth, fire, water, life, death so that in a quick look at any character portrait you can immediately see what magic skills they have. Next would be traits that affect tactical combat, and finally would be strategic traits.

Right now I just see a random list of magic skills, butterflies, and foxes. I'm sure it will make more sense once I know what they all mean, but I shouldn't have to hunt through what could be a long list of traits to find what magic skills the guy has.

 

Agreed on this as well.   While not a critical feature in any sense, this would certainly be helpful.

Reply #36 from Elemental Forums Top

Just a small observation on the tactical screen.

The initiative list to the left. It seems to be a bit hard to tell the different units apart. Maybe you could have the units light up when you hover the mouse over the icons?

 

Reply #37 from Elemental Forums Top

Why, why do you put yourself to the limit of 2 GB? I got 8GB that want to be played with so going 4GB on my machine is totally cool since the other 4GB are rarely/never used :o Plus I agree with the UI stuff, still waiting to play FE in the Beta :-D

Reply #38 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting OneLion, reply 37
Why, why do you put yourself to the limit of 2 GB? I got 8GB that want to be played with so going 4GB on my machine is totally cool since the other 4GB are rarely/never used Plus I agree with the UI stuff, still waiting to play FE in the Beta

2GB is all 32-bit Windows can deal with no matter how much RAM you have and half the PC gaming population has 32-bit Windows.

Reply #39 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Heavenfall, reply 7

Quoting Cruxador, reply 3>the tactical map shows surrounding tiles

I approve. It looks like one strategic tile is five strategic tiles, which means that when you get seiges working, whether that's in FE or a further expansion, the natural setup will be for buildings that take a quarter of a map tile to take up one tactical square, and those that take a whole map square to take nine map squares, leaving alleys to fight and move in. Walls of course would be an exception, filling an unbroken (save for gates) line of single tactical tiles. Seems quite good to me.


 

Let's not jump the gun here. While tactical maps that resemble the strategic world would be marvellous, it's a big feature that they haven't talked about at all. It is probably just a pre-built map.
I know the surroundings don't actually effect the map. I thought the things around it were drawn based on the strategic map, which has been revealed as not the case, but I was aware that none of that would actually be effecting the tactical map itself. I was postulating what could happen in future development, when they finally get to tactical situations. So probably not until the next expansion, but it's good that the current situation is compatible with that.

Reply #40 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Frogboy, reply 38

Quoting OneLion, reply 37Why, why do you put yourself to the limit of 2 GB? I got 8GB that want to be played with so going 4GB on my machine is totally cool since the other 4GB are rarely/never used Plus I agree with the UI stuff, still waiting to play FE in the Beta

2GB is all 32-bit Windows can deal with no matter how much RAM you have and half the PC gaming population has 32-bit Windows.

But you could still have a look at "Is 64-bit running? yes? I'll use an extra 2gb then, provided there's at least 4gb in total".

 

Reply #41 from Elemental Forums Top

Just read the beta-awareness that Frogboy posted; so nevermind the 4gb thing - it's apparently already in! Nice! :)

 

Reply #42 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Frogboy, reply 38

Quoting OneLion, reply 37Why, why do you put yourself to the limit of 2 GB? I got 8GB that want to be played with so going 4GB on my machine is totally cool since the other 4GB are rarely/never used Plus I agree with the UI stuff, still waiting to play FE in the Beta

2GB is all 32-bit Windows can deal with no matter how much RAM you have and half the PC gaming population has 32-bit Windows.

 

Hi brad, thanks for answering. But didn't you say that FE would fully leverage 64 bit systems? I got a 64 bit system. And if half of the gaming population has 32 bit, then the other half got 64 bit - worth supporting =)

 

€: you mean the A reminder: will be terrible and give you a disease thing? Reading it now. Ok saw it now, seems to be a misunderstanding, sorry Brad =)